The river holds a deep and symbolic resonance amongst people who live in this river city.
There is something touching about being close the river. In an ABCTV interview with Lance O'Connell, a deckhand on the CityCat river ferry, O'Connell says how much he enjoys being on the river: 'I've always loved the river so I guess I'm lucky to have a job that allows me to spend my days surrounded by it. Can sure think of worse things I could be doing.'
There is something new to see and experience every day, he adds, like the time a whale swam up the river right into the heart of the city: 'We've even had, well, dolphins as far up as here and also once, just once, we had a whale that went up to the Story Bridge, turned around and went back out the river.' A whale in the river?
Over the weekend I joined many whale watchers on a fund raising trip for the inspirational environmental organisation Sea Shepherd. Three boats loaded with passengers went out to sea to greet the Humpbacks as they travel to Antarctica on their annual migration. We encountered two pods and watched them frolicking, rolling and jutting their heads out of the water or 'spyhopping'. And then they swam off.
Seeing them on their annual migration to the southern ocean was heart-wrenching. On one hand we relished seeing them; the size of these Humpbacks is awesome and experiencing them, up close, was very moving. The expression on the faces of the passengers was testament to the power of these creatures to move people. Many shouted with joy and excitement as soon as the whales appeared or had tears in their eyes.
To know that they will be going down south to face being slaughtered by the Japanese industrial factory ships is too much to fathom. This year will be the first year that the International Whaling Commission has allowed Humpbacks to be killed along with Minke and Fin Whales. The IWC website states, 'the Government of Japan has authorised a new special permit programme in the Antarctic, JARPA II, in which the take of minke whales has been more than doubled, and fin whales and humpback whales have been added to the list of targeted species.'
The song of the male Humpbacks sits with me as I write this, as does the superb footage of Humpback ballet from Cousteau divers and the evocative poem from Mary Oliver 'Humpbacks' which ends with:
'Listen, whatever it is you try
to do with your life, nothing will ever dazzle you
like the dreams of your body,
its spirit
longing to fly while the dead-weight bones
toss their dark mane and hurry
back into the fields of glittering fire
where everything,
even the great whale,
throbs with song.'
